STRAWBERRY BELLINI BOTH SWEET & SMOKY

I’ve worked on a trio of recipes to take full advantage of the short seasonal harvest of strawberries we have here in Western New York State.  I’ve already shared with you my Smoked Strawberry Hand Pie and my Creamy Smoked Strawberry Semifreddo.  Now, it’s time for a refreshing cocktail that also features smoked strawberry.

Just grab a couple of quarts of fresh strawberries or even store bought when they are out of season in your area and pick your smoke technique: we have three options – the charcoal grill which is how I did my strawberries, the gas grill or the handheld food smoker.  Then prepare to make our version of the strawberry Bellini which has a trademark smoked strawberry to balance the sweetness of simple syrup and Prosecco.

Simple Syrup

After smoking the strawberries using either a handheld food smoker, stovetop smoker, gas grill or charcoal smoker – we have instructional videos on all these techniques – the next step for our Bellini is to make the simple syrup.  Taking 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water, I add both to a saucepan set over medium heat and stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved.  Then I remove it from heat and allow to cool.  At this point, I like to pour the simple syrup into a liquid measuring cup to make adding to our cocktail easier.

Bellini Base

Time to start making the Bellini.  I add ice cubes to a blender and pulse them into crushed ice.  I then take my smoked strawberry juice which I reserved from my previous smoked strawberries and add about 1 cup to the crushed ice.  If you’re using whole smoked strawberries, you can pulse these into the crushed ice.  After adding my smoked strawberry juice, I add about 1 cup of simple syrup.  Pulse the mixture until blended and make any necessary adjustments to ice, strawberry or syrup flavors until you have the consistency and balance of sweet and smoky that you like.  Keep in mind, you will be pouring this mixture into the glass first, then adding the sparkling Prosecco so don’t over-sweeten.

Perfect Balance

Now it’s time to bring everything together for the final drink.  First, grab a bottle of Prosecco.  Take the glass of your choice and fill it about halfway with the smoked strawberry mixture.  Fill the rest of the glass with chilled Prosecco.  I like to top my glass off with some fresh mint.  Serve immediately.  Immensely refreshing on a hot day and festive looking too. The perfect way to use less than perfect strawberries.  Cheers from SmokinLicious®!

Tasting Notes

Now, this is a drink base that easily can be adapted for other liquor content.  Feel free to add tequila, rum, even vodka.  Just reduce the hard liquor amount to 2 ounces.